Methods for Alzheimer&#39;s disease treatment and cognitive enhancement

ABSTRACT

The present invention relates to compositions comprising a combination of PKC activators and PKC inhibitors and methods to modulate α-secretase activity; improve or enhance cognitive ability; and/or reduce neurodegeneration in individuals suffering from diseases that impair cognitive ability, particularly Alzheimer&#39;s Disease. The invention also relates to methods for improving or enhancing cognitive ability. The present invention also provides methods for increasing the generation of non-amyloidogenic soluble APP (sAPP) comprising the activation of protein kinase C (PKC) in the brain and inhibiting PKC in peripheral tissues. Macrocyclic lactones (i.e. bryostatin class and neristatin class) are preferred PKC activators and Vitamin E is a preferred PKC inhibitor for use in the inventive composition.

This application is a divisional of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/937,509, filed Sep. 10, 2004, which is a continuation-in-part of Ser. No. 10/167,491, filed Jun. 13, 2002, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,825,229, which claims benefit to U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/362,080, filed Mar. 7, 2002, the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to the modulation of α-secretase and to cognitive enhancement. The invention further relates to compounds for treatment of conditions associated with amyloid processing such as Alzheimer's Disease and compositions for the treatment of such conditions.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Various disorders and diseases exist which affect cognition. Cognition can be generally described as including at least three different components: attention, learning, and memory. Each of these components and their respective levels affect the overall level of a subject's cognitive ability. For instance, while Alzheimer's Disease patients suffer from a loss of overall cognition and thus deterioration of each of these characteristics, it is the loss of memory that is most often associated with the disease. In other diseases patients suffer from cognitive impairment that is more predominately associated with different characteristics of cognition. For instance Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), focuses on the individual's ability to maintain an attentive state. Other conditions include general dementias associated with other neurological diseases, aging, and treatment of conditions that can cause deleterious effects on mental capacity, such as cancer treatments, stroke/ischemia, and mental retardation.

Cognition disorders create a variety of problems for today's society. Therefore, scientists have made efforts to develop cognitive enhancers or cognition activators. The cognition enhancers or activators that have been developed are generally classified to include nootropics, vasodilators, metabolic enhancers, psychostimulants, cholinergic agents, biogenic amine drugs, and neuropeptides. Vasodilators and metabolic enhancers (e.g. dihydroergotoxine) are mainly effective in the cognition disorders induced by cerebral vessel ligation-ischemia; however, they are ineffective in clinical use and with other types of cognition disorders. Of the developed cognition enhancers, typically only metabolic drugs are employed for clinical use, as others are still in the investigation stage. Of the nootropics for instance, piracetam activates the peripheral endocrine system, which is not appropriate for Alzheimer's disease due to the high concentration of steroids produced in patients while tacrine, a cholinergic agent, has a variety of side effects including vomiting, diarrhea, and hepatotoxicity.

Identifying means for improving the cognitive abilities of diseased individuals has been the goal of several studies. Recently the cognitive state related to Alzheimer's Disease and different methods to improve memory have been the subject of various approaches and strategies, which, unfortunately, have only improved symptomatic and transient cognition in diseased individuals and have not addressed the progression of the disease. In the case of Alzheimer's Disease, efforts to improve cognition, typically through the cholinergic pathways or through other brain transmitter pathways, have been investigated. The primary approach relies on the inhibition of acetyl cholinesterase enzymes through drug therapy. Acetyl cholinesterase is a major brain enzyme and manipulating its levels can result in various changes to other neurological functions and cause side effects.

While these and other methods may improve cognition, at least transiently, they do not modify the disease progression, or address the cause of the disease. For instance, Alzheimer's Disease is typically associated with the formation of plaques through the accumulation of amyloid precursor protein. Attempts to illicit an immunological response through treatment against amyloid and plaque formation have been done in animal models, but have not been successfully extended to humans.

Furthermore, cholinesterase inhibitors only produce some symptomatic improvement for a short time and in only a fraction of the Alzheimer's Disease patients with mid to moderate symptoms and are thus only a useful treatment for a small portion of the overall patient population. Even more critical is that present efforts at improving cognition do not result in treatment of the disease condition, but are merely ameliorative of the symptoms. Current treatments do not modify the disease progression. These treatments have also included the use of a “vaccine” to treat the symptoms of Alzheimer's Disease patients which, while theoretically plausible and effective in mice tests, have been shown to cause severe adverse reactions in humans.

As a result, use of the cholinergic pathway for the treatment of cognitive impairment, particularly in Alzheimer's Disease, has proven to be inadequate. Additionally, the current treatments for cognitive improvement are limited to specific neurodegenerative diseases and have not proven effective in the treatment of other cognitive conditions.

Alzheimer's disease is associated with extensive loss of specific neuronal subpopulations in the brain with memory loss being the most universal symptom. (Katzman, R. (1986)) New England Journal of Medicine 314:964). Alzheimer's disease is well characterized with regard to neuropathological changes. However, abnormalities have been reported in peripheral tissue supporting the possibility that Alzheimer's disease is a systematic disorder with pathology of the central nervous system being the most prominent. (Connolly, G., Fibroblast models of neurological disorders: fluorescence measurement studies, Review, TiPS Col. 19, 171-77 (1998)). For a discussion of Alzheimer's disease links to a genetic origin and chromosomes 1, 14, and 21 see St. George-Hyslop, P. H., et al., Science 235:885 (1987); Tanzi, Rudolph et al., The Gene Defects Responsible for Familial Alzheimer's Disease, Review, Neurobiology of Disease 3, 159-168 (1996); Hardy, J., Molecular genetics of Alzheimer's disease, Acta Neurol Scand: Supplement 165: 13-17 (1996).

While cellular changes leading to neuronal loss and the underlying etiology of the disease remain under investigation, the importance of APP metabolism is well established. The two proteins most consistently identified in the brains of patients with Alzheimer's disease to play a role in the physiology or pathophysiology of brain are β-amyloid and tau. (See Selkoe, D., Alzheimer's Disease: Genes, Proteins, and Therapy, Physiological Reviews, Vol. 81, No. 2, 2001). A discussion of the defects in β-amyloid protein metabolism and abnormal calcium homeostasis and/or calcium activated kinases. (Etcheberrigaray et al., Calcium responses are altered in fibroblasts from Alzheimer's patients and presymptomatic PS1 carriers: a potential tool for early diagnosis, Alzheimer's Reports, Vol. 3, Nos. 5 & 6, pp. 305-312 (2000); Webb et al., Protein kinase C isozymes: a review of their structure, regulation and role in regulating airways smooth muscle tone and mitogenesis, British Journal of Pharmacology, 130, pp. 1433-52 (2000)).

Both K⁺ and Ca²⁺ channels have been demonstrated to play key roles in memory storage and recall. For instance, potassium channels have been found to change during memory storage. (Etcheberrigaray, R., et al. (1992) Proceeding of the National Academy of Science 89:7184; Sanchez-Andres, J. V. and Alkon, D. L. (1991) Journal of Neurobiology 65:796; Collin, C., et al. (1988) Biophysics Journal 55:955; Alkon, D. L., et al. (1985) Behavioral and Neural Biology 44:278; Alkon, D. L. (1984) Science 226:1037). This observation, coupled with the almost universal symptom of memory loss in Alzheimer's patients, led to the investigation of potassium channel function as a possible site of Alzheimer's disease pathology and the effect of PKC modulation on cognition.

PKC was identified as one of the largest gene families of non-receptor serine-threonine protein kinases. Since the discovery of PKC in the early eighties by Nishizuka and coworkers (Kikkawa et al., J. Biol Chem., 257, 13341 (1982), and its identification as a major receptor of phorbol esters (Ashendel et al., Cancer Res., 43, 4333 (1983)), a multitude of physiological signaling mechanisms have been ascribed to this enzyme. The intense interest in PKC stems from its unique ability to be activated in vitro by calcium and diacylglycerol (and its phorbol ester mimetics), an effector whose formation is coupled to phospholipid turnover by the action of growth and differentiation factors.

The PKC gene family consists presently of 11 genes which are divided into four subgrounds: 1) classical PKCα, μ₁, μ₂ (μ₁ and μ₂ are alternatively spliced forms of the same gene) and γ, 2) novel PKCδ, ε, η and θ, 3) atypical PKCζ, λ, η and τ and 4) PKCR. PKCμ resembles the novel PKC isoforms but differs by having a putative transmembrane domain (reviewed by Blohe et al., Cancer Metast. Rev. 13, 411 (1994); Ilug et al., Biochem j., 291, 329 (1993); Kikkawa et al., Ann. Rev. Biochem. 58, 31 (1989)). The α, β₁, β₂, and γ isoforms are Ca², phospholipid and diacylglycerol-dependent and represent the classical isoforms of PKC, whereas the other isoforms are activated by phospholipid and diacylglycerol but are not dependent on CA²⁺. All isoforms encompass 5 variable (V1-V5) regions, and the α, β, γ isoforms contain four (C1-C4) structural domains which are highly conserved. All isoforms except PKCα, β and γ lack the C2 domain, and the λ, η and isoforms also lack nine of two cysteine-rich zinc finger domains in C1 to which diacylglycerol binds. The C1 domain also contains the pseudosubstrate sequence which is highly conserved among all isoforms, and which serves an autoregulatory function by blocking the substrate-binding site to produce an inactive conformation of the enzyme (House et al., Science, 238, 1726 (1987)).

Because of these structural features, diverse PKC isoforms are thought to have highly specialized roles in signal transduction in response to physiological stimuli (Nishizuka, Cancer, 10, 1892 (1989)), as well as in neoplastic transformation and differentiation (Glazer, Protein Kinase C. J. F. Kuo, ed., Oxford U. Press (1994) at pages 171-198). For a discussion of known PKC modulators, see: PCT/US97/08141, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,652,232; 6,043,270; 6,080,784; 5,891,906; 5,962,498; 5,955,501; 5,891,870 and 5,962,504 (each of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety).

In view of the central role that PKC plays in signal transduction, PKC has proven to be an exciting target for the modulation of APP processing. It is well established that PKC plays a role in APP processing. Phorbol esters for instance have been shown to significantly increase the relative amount of non-amyloidogenic soluble APP (sAPP) secreted through PKC activation. Activation of PKC by phorbol ester does not appear to result in a direct phosphorylation of the APP molecule, however. Irrespective of the precise site of action, phorbol-induced PKC activation results in an enhanced or favored α-secretase, non-amyloidogenic pathway. Therefore PKC activation is an attractive approach for influencing the production of non-deleterious sAPP and even producing beneficial sAPP and at the same time reduce the relative amount of Aβ peptides. Phorbol esters, however, are not suitable compounds for eventual drug development because of their tumor promotion activity. (Ibarreta et al. (1999) Benzolactam (BL) enhances sAPP secretion in fibroblasts and in PC12 cells, NeuroReport 10(5&6): 1034-40; incorporated herein by reference in its entirety).

There is increasing evidence that the individual PKC isozymes play different, sometimes opposing, roles in biological processes, providing two directions for pharmacological exploitation. One is the design of specific (preferably, isozyme specific) inhibitors of PKC. This approach is complicated by the fact that the catalytic domain is not the domain primarily responsible for the isotype specificity of PKC. The other approach is to develop isozyme-selective, regulatory site-directed PKC activators. These may provide a way to override the effect of other signal transduction pathways with opposite biological effects. Alternatively, by inducing down-regulation of PKC after acute activation, PKC activators may cause long term antagonism. Bryostatin is currently in clinical trials as an anti-cancer agent. The bryostatins are known to bind to the regulatory domain of PKC and to activate the enzyme. Bryostatin is an example of isozyme-selective activators of PKC. Compounds in addition to bryostatins have been found to modulate PKC. (See, for example, WO 97/43268; incorporated herein by reference in its entirety).

There still exists a need for the development of methods for the treatment for improved overall cognition, either through a specific characteristic of cognitive ability or general cognition. There also still exists a need for the development of methods for the improvement of cognitive enhancement whether or not it is related to specific disease state or cognitive disorder. The methods and compositions of the present invention fulfill these needs and will greatly improve the clinical treatment for Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative diseases, as well as, provide for improved cognitive enhancement. The methods and compositions also provide treatment and/or enhancement of the cognitive state through the modulation of α-secretase.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to compounds, compositions, and methods for the treatment of conditions associated with enhancement/improvement of cognitive ability. In a preferred embodiment, the present invention further relates to compounds, compositions and methods for the treatment of conditions associated with amyloid processing, such as Alzheimer's Disease, which provides for improved/enhanced cognitive ability in the subject treated. In particular the compounds and compositions of the present invention are selected from macrocyclic lactones (i.e. bryostatin and neristatin class).

Another aspect of the invention relates to macrocyclic lactone compounds, compositions and methods that modulate α-secretase activity. Of particular interest are the bryostatin and neristatin class compounds, and of further interest is bryostatin-1.

Another aspect of the invention relates to the bryostatin and neristatin class compounds, as a PKC activator, to alter conditions associated with amyloid processing in order to enhance the α-secretase pathway to generate soluble α-amyloid precursor protein (αAPP) so as to prevent β-amyloid aggregation and improve/enhance cognitive ability. Such activation, for example, can be employed in the treatment of Alzheimer's Disease. Of particular interest is bryostatin-1.

In another aspect, the invention relates to a method for treating plaque formation, such as that associated with Alzheimer's Disease, and improving/enhancing the cognitive state of the subject comprising administering to the subject an effective amount of macrocyclic lactone to activate PKC. In a preferred embodiment, the PKC activator is of the bryostatin or neristatin class of compounds. In a more preferred embodiment the compound is bryostatin-1.

Another aspect of the invention relates to a composition for treating plaque formation and improving/enhancing cognitive ability comprising: (i) a macrocyclic lactone in an amount effective to elevate soluble β-amyloid, generate soluble αAPP and prevent β-amyloid aggregation; and (ii) a pharmaceutically effective carrier. In a preferred embodiment the composition is used to improve/enhance cognitive ability associated with Alzheimer's Disease. The macrocyclic lactone is preferably selected from the bryostatin or neristatin class compounds, particularly bryostatin-1.

In one embodiment of the invention the activation of PKC isoenzymes results in improved cognitive abilities. In one embodiment the improved cognitive ability is memory. In another embodiment the improved cognitive ability is learning. In another embodiment the improved cognitive ability is attention. In another embodiment PKC's isoenzymes are activated by a macrocyclic lactone (i.e. bryostatin class and neristatin class). In particular, bryostatin-1 through 18 and neristatin is used to activate the PKC isoenzyme. In a preferred embodiment bryostatin-1 is used.

In another aspect, the invention comprises a composition of PKC isoenzyme activator administered in a amount effective to improve cognitive abilities. In a preferred embodiment the PKC isoenzyme activator is selected from macrocyclic lactones (i.e. bryostatin class and neristatin class). In a preferred embodiment the amount of PKC activator administered is in an amount effective to increase the production of sAPP. In a more preferred embodiment the amount of composition administered does not cause myalgia.

In a preferred embodiment the PKC isoenzymes are activated in subjects, which are suffering or have suffered from neurological diseases, strokes or hypoxia. In a more preferred embodiment the PKC isoenzyme is activated in Alzheimer's Disease subjects or models.

In another embodiment of the invention the PKC activation results in the modulation of amyloid precursor protein metabolism. Further the modulation by the PKC activation results in an increase in the alpha secretase pathway. The alpha secretase pathway results in non-toxic, non-amyloidogenic fragments related to cognitive impairment. As a result the cognitive condition of the subject improves. In another embodiment of the invention the PKC activation reduces the amyloidogenic and toxic fragments Abeta 40 and Ab42.

Another embodiment of the invention is a method of improving cognitive ability through the activation of PKC isoenzymes. In another embodiment of the invention the PKC activation occurs in “normal” subjects. In another embodiment of the invention the PKC activation occurs in subjects suffering from a disease, deteriorating cognitive faculties, or malfunctioning cognition. In a preferred embodiment the method is a method for treating Alzheimer's Disease.

In another embodiment of the invention the modulation of PKC is through the use of a non-tumor promoting agent resulting in improved cognitive abilities. In a preferred embodiment the PKC activator is selected from bryostatin-1 through bryostatin-18 and neristatin. In a more preferred embodiment bryostatin-1 is used. In another embodiment bryostatin-1 is used in combination with a non-bryostatin class compound to improve cognitive ability and reduce side effects.

In another embodiment of the invention, the modulation of PKC through macrocyclic lactones (i.e. bryostatin class and neristatin class) is used in vitro for the testing of conditions associated with Alzheimer's Disease. The in vitro use may include for example, the testing of fibroblast cells, blood cells, or the monitoring of ion channel conductance in cellular models.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention the compounds and compositions are administered through oral and/or injectable forms including intravenously and intraventricularly.

The present invention therefore provides a method of treating impaired memory or a learning disorder in a subject, the method comprising administering thereto a therapeutically effective amount of one of the present compounds. The present compounds can thus be used in the therapeutic treatment of clinical conditions in which memory defects or impaired learning occur. In this way memory and learning can be improved. The condition of the subject can thereby be improved.

The present invention also provides methods for the treatment of conditions associated with amyloid processing. In one embodiment, the methods for treatment of conditions associated with amyloid processing comprise the administration of any of the compositions of the present invention that comprise a PKC activator and a PKC inhibitor. Preferably, the administered composition produces only moderate myalgia in the majority of patients treated with said composition. More preferably, the administered composition does not produce myalgia in the majority of patients treated with said composition.

In another embodiment the methods of the present invention comprise the steps of administering to a subject in need thereof: a) a PKC activator with or without a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier and b) a PKC inhibitor with or without a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier. In one embodiment the PKC activator is administered in an amount effective to enhance or improve cognitive ability. In another embodiment, the PKC activator is administered in an amount effective to increase α-secretase activity. In another embodiment, the PKC activator is administered in an amount effective to reduce the loss of cognitive ability a subject in need thereof. Preferably, the cognitive ability is selected from the group consisting of learning, memory and attention. In yet another embodiment, the PKC activator is administered in an amount effective to increase the production of sAPP.

In one embodiment, the PKC activator is administered in an amount effective to reduce neurodegeneration in a subject in need thereof. Preferably, the subject in need thereof suffers from a neurodegenerative disease selected from the group consisting of Alzheimer's Disease; multi-infarct dementia; the Lewy-body variant of Alzheimer's Disease with or without association with Parkinson's disease; Creutzfeld-Jakob disease; Korsakoff's disorder; and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Most preferably, the neurodegenerative disease is Alzheimer's Disease.

In the methods of the present invention, the PKC activator is preferably selected from the group consisting of a macrocyclic lactone, benzolactam, a pyrrolidinone and a combination thereof. In one embodiment, the PKC activator increases the production of sAPP. In another embodiment, the PKC activators of the present invention are non-tumorigenic. In a preferred embodiment, the PKC activator is a pyrrolidinone. In a more preferred embodiment, the PKC activator is a benzolactam. In the most preferred embodiment, the PKC activator is a macrocyclic lactone. Preferably, the macrocyclic lactone selected from a group consisting of bryostatin- and neristatin-class compounds. In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the macrocyclic lactone is neristatin-1. In a more preferred embodiment, the macrocyclic lactone is selected from the group consisting of bryostatin-1, -2, -3, -4, -5, -6, -7, -8, -9, -10, -11, -12, -13, -14, -15, -16, -17, and -18. Most preferably, the macrocyclic lactone is bryostatin-1.

In the methods of the present invention, the PKC inhibitor is a compound that inhibits PKC in peripheral tissues. As used herein, “peripheral tissues” means tissues other than brain. In another embodiment, the PKC inhibitor is a compound that preferentially inhibits PKC in peripheral tissues. In another embodiment, the PKC inhibitor is a compound that reduces myalgia associated with the administration of a PKC activator to subjects in need thereof. In another embodiment, the PKC inhibitor is a compound that reduces myalgia produced in a subject treated with a PKC activator. In another embodiment, the PKC inhibitor is a compound that increases the tolerable dose of a PKC activator. Specifically, PKC inhibitors include, for example, but are not limited to vitamin E, vitamin E analogs, and salts thereof; calphostin C; thiazolidinediones; ruboxistaurin; and combinations thereof. As used herein, “vitamin E” means α-tocopherol (5,7,8-trimethyltocol); β-tocopherol (5,8-dimethyltocol; δ-tocopherol (8-methyltocol); and γ-tocopherol (7,8-dimethyltocol), salts and analogs thereof.

In the methods of the present invention, the PKC activator is preferably administered prior to administration of the PKC inhibitor. More preferably, the PKC inhibitor is administered prior to the PKC activator. Most preferably, the PKC activator and PKC inhibitor are administered simultaneously.

In a preferred embodiment, the PKC inhibitor is vitamin E. Preferably, the vitamin E is administered in a dose between 15 and 2,000 IU per day; more preferably between 150 and 2,000 IU per day; and most preferably between 300 and 2,000 IU per day. As used herein, “one International Unit” or “IU” means the vitamin E activity of one milligram of dl-α-tocopherol acetate.

The compositions and methods have utility in treating clinical conditions and disorders in which impaired memory or a learning disorder occurs, either as a central feature or as an associated symptom. Examples such conditions which the present compounds can be used to treat include Alzheimer's disease, multi-infarct dementia and the Lewy-body variant of Alzheimer's disease with or without association with Parkinson's disease; Creutzfeld-Jakob disease and Korsakoff's disorder.

The compositions and methods can also be used to treat impaired memory or learning which is age-associated, is consequent upon electro-convulsive therapy or which is the result of brain damage caused, for example, by stroke, an anesthetic accident, head trauma, hypoglycemia, carbon monoxide poisoning, lithium intoxication or a vitamin deficiency.

The compounds have the added advantage of being non-tumor promoting and already being involved in phase II clinical trials.

The invention relates to a pharmaceutical composition for enhancing cognition, preventing and/or treating cognition disorders. More particularly, it relates to the pharmaceutical composition comprising macrocyclic lactones (i.e. bryostatin class and neristatin class) and their derivatives as the active ingredient for enhancing cognition, preventing and/or treating cognition disorders.

It is therefore a primary object of the invention to provide pharmaceutical compositions for enhancing cognition, preventing and/or treating cognition disorders. The pharmaceutical composition comprises macrocyclic lactones, particularly the bryostatin and neristatin class, or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt or derivative thereof, and a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier or excipient.

The pharmaceutical composition according to the invention is useful in the enhancement of cognition, prophylaxis and/or treatment of cognition disorders, wherein cognition disorders include, but are not limited to, disorders of learning acquisition, memory consolidation, and retrieval, as described herein.

The present invention provides compositions comprising a PKC activator selected from the group consisting of a macrocyclic lactone, benzolactam, a pyrrolidinone and a combination thereof; a PKC inhibitor; and a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier. In one embodiment, the PKC activator increases the production of sAPP. In another embodiment, the PKC activators of the present invention are non-tumorigenic. In a preferred embodiment, the PKC activator is a benzolactam. In a more preferred embodiment, the PKC activator is a pyrrolidinone. In the most preferred embodiment, the PKC activator is a macrocyclic lactone.

The present invention also provides compositions comprising a macrocyclic lactone selected from a group consisting of bryostatin- and neristatin-class compounds; a PKC inhibitor; and a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier. In one embodiment, the macrocyclic lactone is a neristatin-class compound. In another embodiment, the macrocyclic lactone is a bryostatin-class compound. In a preferred embodiment, the macrocyclic lactone is selected from the group consisting of bryostatin-1, -2, -3, -4, -5, -6, -7, -8, -9, -10, -11, -12, -13, -14, -15, -16, -17, and -18. In a more preferred embodiment of the present invention, the macrocyclic lactone is neristatin-1. In the most preferred embodiment, the macrocyclic lactone is bryostatin-1.

In a preferred embodiment, bryostatin-1 is administered in a dose of between 5 and 200 μg/m². In a more preferred embodiment, bryostatin-1 is administered in a dose of between 10 and 100 μg/m². In a most preferred embodiment, bryostatin-1 is administered in a dose of between 5 and 50 μg/m².

In one embodiment, the PKC inhibitor is a compound that inhibits PKC in peripheral tissues. As used herein, “peripheral tissues” means tissues other than brain. In another embodiment, the PKC inhibitor is a compound that preferentially inhibits PKC in peripheral tissues. In another embodiment, the PKC inhibitor is a compound that reduces myalgia associated with the administration of a PKC activator to subjects in need thereof. In another embodiment, the PKC inhibitor is a compound that reduces myalgia produced in a subject treated with a PKC activator. In another embodiment, the PKC inhibitor is a compound that increases the tolerable dose of a PKC activator. In a preferred embodiment, the PKC inhibitor is vitamin E. In a more preferred embodiment, the vitamin E is α-tocopherol.

The invention concerns a method for the treatment of amyloidosis associated with neurological diseases, including Alzheimer's disease by administering to a patient an effective amount of at least one agent that modulates or affects the phosphorylation of proteins in mammalian cells.

The invention also provides a method for treating Alzheimer's disease comprising administering to a patient an effective amount of a macrocyclic lactone (i.e. bryostatin class and neristatin class).

In another embodiment the bryostatin or neristatin class compounds may be used in the above methods in combination with different phorbol esters to prevent or reduce tumorogenic response in the subject.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 depicts the effect of different PKC inhibitors on sAPPα secretion with Bryostatin-1 showing greater efficacy at lower concentrations than controls and Benzolactam.

FIG. 2 depicts the effect of different concentrations of Bryostatin-1 on the PKCα isozyme.

FIG. 3 depicts the effect of different concentrations of Bryostatin-1 on sAPPα secretion.

FIG. 4 depicts the amount of time required for treated rats versus controls to learn a water maze.

FIG. 5 depicts the observed effect of bryostatin on rat performance in the water maze: (a) the amount of time control rats spent swimming in the different quadrants of the water maze; (b) the amount of time treated rats spent swimming in the different quadrants of the water maze; and (c) the difference between the amount of time the treated rats spent in target quadrant of the water maze compared to control rats.

FIG. 6 depicts sAPPα secretion in human fibroblast cells following administration of bryostatin (0.1 nM) for both controls and AD cells.

FIG. 7 depicts an immunoblot for sAPP following administration of bryostatin in AD cells.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Memory loss and impaired learning ability are features of a range of clinical conditions. For instance, loss of memory is the most common symptom of dementia states including Alzheimer's disease. Memory defects also occur with other kinds of dementia such as multi-infarct dementia (MID), a senile dementia caused by cerebrovascular deficiency, and the Lewy-body variant of Alzheimer's disease with or without association with Parkinson's disease, or Creutzfeld-Jakob disease. Loss of memory is a common feature of brain-damaged patients. Brain damage may occur, for example, after a classical stroke or as a result of an anesthetic accident, head trauma, hypoglycemia, carbon monoxide poisoning, lithium intoxication, vitamin (B1, thiamine and B12) deficiency, or excessive alcohol use or Korsakoff's disorder. Memory impairment may furthermore be age-associated; the ability to recall information such as names, places and words seems to decrease with increase age. Transient memory loss may also occur in patients, suffering from a major depressive disorder, after electro-convulsive therapy (ECT). Alzheimer's disease is in fact the most important clinical entity responsible for progressive dementia in ageing populations, whereas hypoxia/stroke is responsible for significant memory defects not related to neurological disorders.

Individuals with Alzheimer's disease are characterized by progressive memory impairments, loss of language and visuospatial skills and behavior deficits (McKhann et al., 1986, Neurology, 34:939-944). The cognitive impairment of individuals with Alzheimer's disease is the result of degeneration of neuronal cells located in the cerebral cortex, hippocampus, basal forebrain and other brain regions. Histologic analyzes of Alzheimer's disease brains obtained at autopsy demonstrated the presence of neurofibrillary tangles (NFT) in perikarya and axons of degenerating neurons, extracellular neuritic (senile) plaques, and amyloid plaques inside and around some blood vessels of affected brain regions. Neurofibrillary tangles are abnormal filamentous structures containing fibers (about 10 nm in diameter) that are paired in a helical fashion, therefore also called paired helical filaments. Neuritic plaques are located at degenerating nerve terminals (both axonal and dendritic), and contain a core compound of amyloid protein fibers. In summary, Alzheimer's disease is characterized by certain neuropathological features including intracellular neurofibrillary tangles, primarily composed of cytoskeletal proteins, and extracellular parenchymal and cerebrosvascular amyloid. Further, there are now methods in the art of distinguishing between Alzheimer's patients, normal aged people, and people suffering from other neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson's, Huntington's chorea, Wernicke-Korsakoff or schizophrenia further described for instance in U.S. Pat. No. 5,580,748 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,080,582.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a brain disorder characterized by altered protein catabolism. Altered protein phosphorylation has been implicated in the formation of the intracellular neurofibrillary tangles found in Alzheimer's disease. A role for protein phosphorylation in the catabolism of the amyloid precursor protein (APP), from which is derived the major component of amyloid plaques found in AD, has also been investigated. A central feature of the pathology of Alzheimer's disease is the deposition of amyloid protein within plaques.

The processing of the amyloid precursor protein (APP) determines the production of fragments that later aggregate forming the amyloid deposits characteristic of Alzheimer's disease (AD), known as senile or AD plaques. Thus, APP processing is an early and key pathophysiological event in AD.

Three alternative APP processing pathways have been identified. The previously termed “normal” processing involves the participation of an enzyme that cleaves APP within the Aβ sequence at residue Lys16 (or between Lys16 and Leu17; APP770 nomenclature), resulting in non-amyloidogenic fragments: a large N-terminus ectodomain and a small 9 kDa membrane bound fragment. This enzyme, yet to be fully identified, is known as α-secretase. Two additional secretases participate in APP processing. One alternative pathway involves the cleavage of APP outside the Aβ domain, between Met671 and Asp672 (by β-secretase) and the participation of the endosomal-lysomal system. An additional cleavage site occurs at the carboxyl-terminal end of the Aβ portion, within the plasma membrane after amino acid 39 of the Aβ peptide. The secretase (γ) action produces an extracellular amino acid terminal that contains the entire Aβ sequence and a cell-associated fragment of ˜6 kDa. Thus, processing by β and γ secretases generate potential amyloidogenic fragments since they contain the complete Aβ sequence. Several lines of evidence have shown that all alternative pathways occur in a given system and that soluble Aβ may be a “normal product.” However, there is also evidence that the amount of circulating Aβ in CSF and plasma is elevated in patients carrying the “Swedish” mutation. Moreover, cultured cells transfected with this mutation or the APP₇₁₇ mutation, secrete larger amounts of Aβ. More recently, carriers of other APP mutations and PS1 and PS2 mutations have been shown to secrete elevated amounts of a particular form, long (42-43 amino acids) Aβ.

Therefore, although all alternative pathways may occur normally, an imbalance favoring amyloidogenic processing occurs in familial and perhaps sporadic AD. These enhanced amyloidogenic pathways ultimately lead to fibril and plaque formation in the brains of AD patients. Thus, intervention to favor the non-amyloidogenic, α-secretase pathway effectively shifts the balance of APP processing towards a presumably non-pathogenic process that increases the relative amount of sAPP compared with the potentially toxic Aβ peptides.

The PKC isoenzymes provides a critical, specific and rate limiting molecular target through which a unique correlation of biochemical, biophysical, and behavioral efficacy can be demonstrated and applied to subjects to improve cognitive ability.

The present inventors have studied bryostatins as activators of protein kinase (PKC). Alterations in PKC, as well alterations in calcium regulation and potassium (K⁺) channels are included among alterations in fibroblasts in Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients. PKC activation has been shown to restore normal K⁺ channel function, as measured by TEA-induced [Ca²⁺] elevations. Further patch-clamp data substantiates the effect of PKC activators on restoration of 113 psK⁺ channel activity. Thus PKC activator-based restoration of K⁺ channels has been established as an approach to the investigation of AD pathophysiology, and provides a useful model for AD therapeutics. (See, pending U.S. application Ser. No. 09/652,656, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.)

The use of peripheral tissues from Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients and animal neuronal cells permitted the identification of a number of cellular/molecular alterations reflecting comparable processes in the AD brain and thus, of pathophysiological relevance (Baker et al., 1988; Scott, 1993; Huang, 1994; Scheuner et al., 1996; Etcheberrigaray & Alkon, 1997; Gasparini et al., 1997). Alteration of potassium channel function has been identified in fibroblasts (Etcheberrigaray et al., 1993) and in blood cells (Bondy et al., 1996) obtained from AD patients. In addition, it was shown that β-amyloid, widely accepted as a major player in AD pathophysiology (Gandy & Greengard, 1994; Selkoe, 1994; Yankner, 1996), was capable of inducing an AD-like K⁺ channel alteration in control fibroblasts (Etcheberrigaray et al., 1994). Similar or comparable effects of β-amyloid on K⁺ channels have been reported in neurons from laboratory animals (Good et al., 1996; also for a review see Fraser et al., 1997). An earlier observation of hippocampal alterations of apamin-senitive K⁺ channels in AD brains (as measured by apamin binding) provides additional support for the suggestion that K⁺ channels may be pathophysiologically relevant in AD (Ikeda et al., 1991). Furthermore, protein kinase C (PKC) exhibits parallel changes in peripheral and brain tissues of AD patients. The levels and/or activity of this enzyme(s) were introduced in brains and fibroblasts from AD patients (Code et al., 1988; Van Huynh et al., 1989; Govoni et al., 1993; Wang et al., 1994). Studies using immunoblotting analyses have revealed that of the various PKC isozymes, primarily the α isoform was significantly reduced in fibroblasts (Govoni et al., 1996), while both α and β isoforms are reduced in brains of AD patients (Shimohama et al., 1993; Masliah et al., 1990). These brain PKC alterations might be an early event in the disease process (Masliah et al., 1991). It is also interesting to note that PKC activation appears to favor nonamyloidogenic processing of the amyloid precursor protein, APP (Bauxbaum et al., 1990; Gillespie et al., 1992; Selkoe, 1994; Gandy & Greengard, 1994; Bergamashi et al., 1995; Desdoutis et al., 1996; Efhimiopoulus et al., 1996). Thus, both PKC and K⁺ channel alterations coexist in AD, with peripheral and brain expression in AD.

The line between PKC and K⁺ channel alterations has been investigation because PKC is known to regulate ion channels, including K⁺ channels and that a defective PKC leads to defective K⁺ channels. This is important not only for the modulation of APP, but also for the role PKC and K⁺ channels plays in memory establishment and recall. (e.g., see Alkon et al., 1988; Covarrubias et al., 1994; Hu et al., 1996) AD fibroblasts have been used to demonstrate both K⁺ channels and PKC defects (Etcheberrigaray et al., 1993; Govoni et al., 1993, 1996). Studies also show, fibroblasts with known dysfunctional K⁺ channels treated with PKC activators restore channel activity as monitored by the presence/absence of TEA-induced calcium elevations. Further, assays based on tetraethylammonium chloride (TEA)-induced [Ca²⁺] elevation have been used to show functional 113 pS K⁺ channels that are susceptible to TEA blockade (Etcheberrigaray et al., 1993, 1994; Hirashima et al., 1996). Thus, TEA-induced [Ca²⁺] elevations and K⁺ channel activity observed in fibroblasts from control individuals are virtually absent in fibroblasts from AD patients (Etcheberrigaray et al., 1993; Hirashima et al., 1996). These studies demonstrate that the use of PKC activators can restore the responsiveness of AD fibroblast cell lines to the TEA challenge. Further, immunoblot evidence from these studies demonstrate that this restoration is related to a preferential participation of the α isoform.

The present inventors have also observed that activation of protein kinase C favors the α-secretase processing of the Alzheimer's disease (AD) amyloid precursor protein (APP), resulting in the generation of non-amyloidogenic soluble APP (sAPP). Consequently, the relative secretion of amyloidogenic A₁₋₄₀ and A₁₋₄₂₍₃₎ is reduced. This is particularly relevant since fibroblasts and other cells expressing APP and presenilin AD mutations secrete increased amounts of total Aβ and/or increased ratios of A₁₋₄₂₍₃₎/A₁₋₄₀. Interesting, PKC defects have been found in AD brain (α and β isoforms) and in fibroblasts (α-isoform) from AD patients.

Studies have shown that other PKC activators (i.e. benzolactam) with improved selectivity for the α, β and γ isoforms enhance sAPP secretion over basal levels. The sAPP secretion in benzolactam-treated AD cells was also slightly higher compared to control benzolactam-treated fibroblasts, which only showed significant increases of sAPP secretion after treatment with 10 μM BL. It was further reported that staurosporine (a PKC inhibitor) eliminated the effects of benzolactam in both control and AD fibroblasts while related compounds also cause a ˜3-fold sAPP secretion in PC12 cells. The present inventors have found that the use of bryostatin as a PKC activators to favor non-amyloidogenic APP processing is of particular therapeutic value since it is non-tumor promoting and already in stage II clinical trials.

Memories are thought to be a result of lasting synaptic modification in the brain structures related to information processing. Synapses are considered a critical site at final targets through which memory-related events realize their functional expression, whether the events involve changed gene expression and protein translation, altered kinase activities, or modified signaling cascades. A few proteins have been implicated in associative memory including Ca²⁺/calmodulin II kinases, protein kinase C, calexcitin, a 22-kDa learning-associated Ca²⁺ binding protein, and type II ryanodine receptors. The modulation of PKC through the administration of macrocyclic lactones provides a mechanism to effect synaptic modification.

The area of memory and learning impairment is rich in animal models that are able to demonstrate different features of memory and learning processes. (See, for example, Hollister, L. E., 1990, Pharmacopsychiat., 23, (Suppl II) 33-36). The available animal models of memory loss and impaired learning involve measuring the ability of animals to remember a discrete event. These tests include the Morris Water Maze and the passive avoidance procedure. In the Morris Water Maze, animals are allowed to swim in a tank divided into four quadrants, only one of which has a safety platform beneath the water. The platform is removed and the animals are tested for how long they search the correct quadrant verse the incorrect quadrants. In the passive avoidance procedure the animal remembers the distinctive environment in which a mild electric shock is delivered and avoids it on a second occasion. A variant of the passive avoidance procedure makes use of a rodent's preference for dark enclosed environments over light open ones. Further discussion can be found in Crawley, J. N., 1981, Pharmacol. Biochem. Behav., 15, 695-699; Costall, B. et al, 1987, Neuropharmacol., 26, 195-200; Costall, B. et al., 1989, Pharmacol. Biochem. Behav., 32, 777-785; Barnes, J. M. et al., 1989, Br. J. Pharmacol., 98 (Suppl) 693P; Barnes, J. M. et al. 1990, Pharmacol. Biochem. Behav., 35, 955-962.

The use of the word, “normal” is meant to include individuals who have not been diagnosed with or currently display diminished or otherwise impaired cognitive function. The different cognitive abilities may be tested and evaluated through known means well established in the art, including but not limited to tests from basic motor-spatial skills to more complex memory recall testing. Non-limiting examples of tests used for cognitive ability for non-primates include the Morris Water Maze, Radial Maze, T Maze, Eye Blink Conditioning, Delayed Recall, and Cued Recall while for primate subjects test may include Eye Blink, Delayed Recall, Cued Recall, Face Recognition, Minimental, and ADAS-Cog. Many of these tests are typically used in the mental state assessment for patients suffering from AD. Similarly, the evaluation for animal models for similar purposes with well describe in the literature.

Of particular interest are macrocyclic lactones (i.e. bryostatin class and neristatin class) that act to stimulate PKC. Of the bryostatin class compounds, bryostatin-1 has been shown to activate PKC and proven to be devoid of tumor promotion activity. Bryostatin-1, as a PKC activator, is also particularly useful since the dose response curve of bryostatin-1 is biphasic. Additionally, bryostatin-1 demonstrates differential regulation of PKC isozymes, including PKCα, PKCδ, and PKCε. Bryostatin-1 has undergone toxicity and safety studies in animals and humans and is actively being investigated as an anti-cancer agent. Bryostatin-1's use in the studies has determined that the main adverse reaction in humans is myalgia, limiting the maximum dose to 40 mg/m². The present invention has utilized concentrations of 0.1 nM of bryostatin-1 to cause a dramatic increase of sAPP secretion. Bryostatin-1 has been compared to a vehicle alone and to another PKC activator, benzolactam (BL), used at a concentration 10,000 times higher. Also, bryostatin used at 0.01 nM still proved effective to increase sAPP secretion. (See FIG. 1). Translocation of PKC to the cell membrane, a measure of PKC activation, demonstrates that activation is maximal at 30 min, followed by a partial decline, which remains higher than basal translocation levels up to six hours. (See, FIGS. 2, 3, & 7). The use of the PKC inhibitor staurosporin completely prevents the effect of bryostatin on sAPP secretion. The data further demonstrates that PKC activation mediates the effect of bryostatin on sAPP secretion. (See, FIGS. 1-3)

Macrocyclic lactones, and particularly bryostatin-1 is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,560,774 (incorporated herein by reference in its entirety). Macrocyclic lactones and their derivatives are described elsewhere in the art for instance in U.S. Pat. No. 6,187,568, U.S. Pat. No. 6,043,270, U.S. Pat. No. 5,393,897, U.S. Pat. No. 5,072,004, U.S. Pat. No. 5,196,447, U.S. Pat. No. 4,833,257, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,611,066 (each of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties). The above patents describe various compounds and various uses for macrocyclic lactones including their use as an anti-inflammatory or anti-tumor agent. Other discussions regarding bryostatin class compounds can be found in: Szallasi et al. (1994) Differential Regulation of Protein Kinase C Isozymes by Bryostatin 1 and Phorbol 12-Myristate 13-Acetate in NIH 3T3 Fibroblasts, Journal of Biological Chemistry 269(3): 2118-24; Zhang et al. (1996) Preclinical Pharmacology of the Natural Product Anticancer Agent Bryostatin 1, an Activator of Protein Kinase C, Cancer Research 56: 802-808; Hennings et al. (1987) Bryostatin 1, an activator of protein kinase C, inhibits tumor promotion by phorbol esters in SENCAR mouse skin, Carcinogenesis 8(9): 1343-46; Varterasian et al. (2000) Phase II Trial of Bryostatin 1 in Patients with Relapse Low-Grade Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma and Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia, Clinical Cancer Research 6: 825-28; and Mutter et al (2000) Review Article: Chemistry and Clinical Biology of the Bryostatins, Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry 8: 1841-1860 (each of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety).

Myalgia is the primary side effect that limits the tolerable dose of a PKC activator. For example, in phase II clinical trials using bryostatin-1, myalgia was reported in 10 to 87% of all treated patients. (Clamp et al. (2002) Anti-Cancer Drugs 13: 673-683). Doses of 20 μg/m² once per week for 3 weeks were well tolerated and were not associated with myalgia or other side effects. (Weitman et al. (1999) Clinical Cancer Research 5: 2344-2348). In another clinical study, 25 μg/m² of bryostatin-1 administered once per week for 8 weeks was the maximum tolerated dose. (Jayson et al. (1995) British J of Cancer 72(2): 461-468). Another study reported that 50 μg/m² (a 1 hour i.v. infusion administered once every 2 weeks for a period of 6 weeks) was the maximum-tolerated dose. (Prendville et al. (1993) British J. of Cancer 68(2): 418-424). The reported myalgia was cumulative with repeated treatments of bryostatin-1 and developed several days after initial infusion. Id. The deleterious effect of myalgia on a patient's quality of life was a contributory reason for the discontinuation of bryostatin-1 treatment. Id. The etiology of bryostatin-induced myalgia is uncertain. Id.

The National Cancer Institute has established common toxicity criteria for grading myalgia. Specifically, the criteria are divided into five categories or grades. Grade 0 is no myalgia. Grade 1 myalgia is characterized by mild, brief pain that does not require analgesic drugs. In Grade 1 myalgia, the patient is fully ambulatory. Grade 2 myalgia is characterized by moderate pain, wherein the pain or required analgesics interfere with some functions, but do not interfere with the activities of daily living. Grade 3 myalgia is associated with severe pain, wherein the pain or necessary analgesics severely interfere with the activities of daily living. Grade 4 myalgia is disabling.

The compositions of the present invention increase the tolerable dose of the PKC activator administered to a patient and/or ameliorate the side effects associated with PKC activation by attenuating the activation of PKC in peripheral tissues. Specifically, PKC inhibitors inhibit PKC in peripheral tissues or preferentially inhibit PKC in peripheral tissues. Vitamin E, for example, has been shown to normalize diacylglycerol-protein kinase C activation in the aorta of diabetic rats and cultured rat smooth muscle cells exposed to elevated glucose levels. (Kunisaki et al. (1994) Diabetes 43(11): 1372-1377). In a double-blind trial of vitamin E (2000 IU/day) treatment in patients suffering from moderately advanced Alzheimer's Disease, it was found that vitamin E treatment reduced mortality and morbidity, but did not enhance cognitive abilities. (Burke et al. (1999) Post Graduate Medicine 106(5): 85-96).

Macrocyclic lactones, including the bryostatin class, represent known compounds, originally derived from Bigula neritina L. While multiple uses for macrocyclic lactones, particularly the bryostatin class are known, the relationship between macrocyclic lactones and cognition enhancement was previously unknown.

The examples of the compounds that may be used in the present invention include macrocyclic lactones (i.e. bryostatin class and neristatin class compounds). While specific embodiments of these compounds are described in the examples and detailed description, it should be understood that the compounds disclosed in the references and derivatives thereof could also be used for the present compositions and methods.

As will also be appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art, macrocyclic lactone compounds and their derivatives, particularly the bryostatin class, are amenable to combinatorial synthetic techniques and thus libraries of the compounds can be generated to optimize pharmacological parameters, including, but not limited to efficacy and safety of the compositions. Additionally, these libraries can be assayed to determine those members that preferably modulate α-secretase and/or PKC.

Combinatorial libraries high throughput screening of natural products and fermentation broths has resulted in the discovery of several new drugs. At present, generation and screening of chemical diversity is being utilized extensively as a major technique for the discovery of lead compounds, and this is certainly a major fundamental advance in the area of drug discovery. Additionally, even after a “lead compound has been identified, combinatorial techniques provide for a valuable tool for the optimization of desired biological activity. As will be appreciated, the subject reactions readily lend themselves to the creation of combinatorial libraries of compounds for the screening of pharmaceutical, or other biological or medically-related activity or material-related qualities. A combinatorial library for the purposes of the present invention is a mixture of chemically related compounds, which may be screened together for a desired property; said libraries may be in solution or covalently linked to a solid support. The preparation of many related compounds in a single reaction greatly reduces and simplifies the number of screening processes that need to be carried out. Screening for the appropriate biological property may be done by conventional methods. Thus, the present invention also provides methods for determining the ability of one or more inventive compounds to bind to effectively modulate α-secretase and/or PKC.

A variety of techniques are available in the art of generating combinatorial libraries described below, but it will be understood that the present invention is not intended to be limited by the foregoing examples and descriptions. See, for example, Blondelle et al. (1995) Trends Anal. Chem. 14:83; the Affymax U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,359,115 and 5,362,899: the Ellman U.S. Pat. No. 5,288,514: the Still et al. PCT publication WO 94/08051; Chen et al. (1994) JACS1 1 6:266 1: Kerr et al. (1993) JACS I 1 5:252; PCT publications W092/10092, WO93/09668 and WO91/07087; and the Lerner et al. PCT publication WO93/20242). Accordingly, a variety of libraries on the order of about 16 to 1,000,000 or more diversomers can be synthesized and screened for a particular activity or property.

The present compounds can be administered by a variety of routes and in a variety of dosage forms including those for oral, rectal, parenteral (such as subcutaneous, intramuscular and intravenous), epidural, intrathecal, intra-articular, topical and buccal administration. The dose range for adult human beings will depend on a number of factors including the age, weight and condition of the patient and the administration route.

For oral administration, fine powders or granules containing diluting, dispersing and/or surface-active agents may be presented in a draught, in water or a syrup, in capsules or sachets in the dry state, in a non-aqueous suspension wherein suspending agents may be included, or in a suspension in water or a syrup. Where desirable or necessary, flavoring, preserving, suspending, thickening or emulsifying agents can be included.

Other compounds which may be included by admixture are, for example, medically inert ingredients, e.g. solid and liquid diluent, such as lactose, dextrose, saccharose, cellulose, starch or calcium phosphate for tablets or capsules, olive oil or ethyl oleate for soft capsules and water or vegetable oil for suspensions or emulsions; lubricating agents such as silica, talc, stearic acid, magnesium or calcium stearate and/or polyethylene glycols; gelling agents such as colloidal clays; thickening agents such as gum tragacanth or sodium alginate, binding agents such as starches, Arabic gums, gelatin, methylcellulose, carboxymethylcellulose or polyvinylpyrrolidone; disintegrating agents such as starch, alginic acid, alginates or sodium starch glycolate; effervescing mixtures; dyestuff; sweeteners; wetting agents such as lecithin, polysorbates or laurylsuphates; and other therapeutically acceptable accessory ingredients, such as humectants, preservatives, buffers and antioxidants, which are known additives for such formulations.

Liquid dispersions for oral administration may be syrups, emulsions or suspensions. The syrups may contain as carrier, for example, saccharose or saccharose with glycerol and/or mannitol and/or sorbitol. In particular a syrup for diabetic patient can contain as carriers only products, for example sorbitol, which do not metabolize to glucose or which metabolize only a very small amount to glucose. The suspensions and the emulsions may contain a carrier, for example a natural gum, agar, sodium alginate, pectin, methylcellulose, carboxymethylcellulose or polyvinyl alcohol.

Suspension or solutions for intramuscular injection may contain, together with the active compound, a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier such as sterile water, olive oil, ethyl oleate, glycols such as propylene glycol and, if desired, a suitable amount of lidocaine hydrochloride. Solutions for intravenous injection or infusion may contain a carrier, for example, sterile water that is generally Water for Injection. Preferably, however, they may take the form of a sterile, aqueous, isotonic saline solution. Alternatively, the present compounds may be encapsulated within liposomes. The present compounds may also utilize other known active agent delivery systems.

The present compounds may also be administered in pure form unassociated with other additives, in which case a capsule, sachet or tablet is the preferred dosage form.

Tablets and other forms of presentation provided in discrete units conveniently contain a daily dose, or an appropriate fraction thereof, of one of the present compounds. For example, units may contain from 5 mg to 500 mg, but more usually from 10 mg to 250 mg, of one of the present compounds.

It will be appreciated that the pharmacological activity of the compositions of the invention can be demonstrated using standard pharmacological models that are known in the art. Furthermore, it will be appreciated that the inventive compositions can be incorporated or encapsulated in a suitable polymer matrix or membrane for site-specific delivery, or can be functionalized with specific targeting agents, capable of effecting site specific delivery. These techniques, as well as other drug delivery techniques are well known in the art.

All books, articles, or patents references herein are incorporated by reference to the extent not inconsistent with the present disclosure. The present invention will now be described by way of examples, which are meant to illustrate, but not limit, the scope of the invention.

EXAMPLES Example 1 Cell Culture

Cultured skin fibroblasts were obtained from the Coriell Cell Repositories and grown using the general guidelines established for their culture with slight modifications (Cristofalo & Carptentier, 1988; Hirashima et al., 1996). The culture medium in which cells were grown was Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium (GIBCO) supplemented with 10% calf serum (Biofluids, Inc.). Fibroblasts from control cell lines (AC), cases AG07141 and AG06241, and a familial AD (FAD) case (AG06848) were utilized.

Example 2 PKC Activators

The different tissue distributions, the apparently distinctive roles of different isozymes, and the differential involvement in pathology make it important to use pharmacological tools that are capable of preferentially targeting specific isozymes (Kozikowski et al., 1997; Hofmann, 1997). Resent research in the medicinal chemistry field has resulted in the development of several PKC activators, for instance different benzolactams and pyrollidinones. However, the currently studied bryostatin PKC activator not only has the benefit of providing isospecific activity, but also does not suffer from the set back of the previously used PKC activator, such as being tumor promoting. The bryostatin competes for the regulatory domain of PKC and engages in very specific hydrogen bond interactions within this site. Additional information on the organic chemistry and molecular modeling of this compound can be found throughout the literature.

Example 3 Treatment

Cells grown to confluence in 6 cm Petri dishes for 5-7 days. On the day of the experiment, medium was replaced with DMEM without serum and left undisturbed for 2 h. Upon completion of the 2 hour serum deprivation, treatment was achieved by direct application to the medium of Bryo, BL and DMSO at the appropriate concentrations. DMSO was less than 1% in all cases. In most cases, medium was collected and processed after 3 hours of treatment for sAPP secretion. Other time points were also used to establish a time course of secretion.

Example 4 Immunoblot Assay

Immunoblot experiments were conducted using well-established procedures (Dunbar, 1994). Cells were grown to confluency (˜90%) in 6 cm Petri dishes. Levels of isozyme in response to treatment with 0.1 nM bryostatin-1 for 5, 30, 60 and 120 minutes was quantified using procedures slightly modified from that established by Racchi et al., (1994). Fibroblasts were washed twice with ice-cold PBS, scraped in PBS, and collected by low-speed centrifugation. The pellets were re-suspended in the following homogenization buffer: 20 mM Tris-HCl, pH 7.5, 2 mM EDTA, 2 mM EGTA, 5 mM DTT, 0.32 M sucrose, and protease inhibitor cocktail (Sigma). Hemogenates were obtained by sonication, and centrifuged at ˜12.00 g for 20 minutes, and the supernatants were used as the cytosolic fraction. The pellets were homogenized in the same buffer containing 1.0% Triton X-100, incubated in ice for 45 minutes, and centrifuged at ˜12,000 g for 20 minutes. The supernatant from this batch was used as the membranous fraction. After protein determination, 20 μg of protein were diluted in 2× electrophoresis sample buffer (Novex), boiled for 5 minutes, run on 10% acrylamide gel, and transferred electrophoretically to a PVDF membrane. The membrane was saturated with 5% milk blocker by incubating it at room temperature for an hour. The primary antibody for PKC isoform (Transduction Laboratories) was diluted (1:1000) in blocking solution and incubated with the membrane overnight at 4° C. After incubation with the secondary antibody, alkaline phosphatase anti-mouse IgG (Vector Laboratories), the membrane was developed using a chemoluminescent substrate (Vector Laboratories) per the manufacturer's instructions. The band intensities were quantified by densitometry using a BioRad GS-800 calibrated scanning densitometer and Multianalyst software (BioRad).

Example 5 sAPP Determinations

The concentration of secreted APP was measured using conventional immunoblotting techniques, with minor modifications the protocol. Precipitated protein extracts each dish/treatment were loaded to freshly prepared 10% acrylamide Tris HCl minigels and separated SDS-PAGE. The volume of sample loaded was corrected for total cell protein per dish. Proteins were then electrophoretically transferred to PVDF membranes. Membranes were saturated with 5% non-fat dry milk to block non-specific binding. Blocked membranes were incubated overnight at 4° C. with the commercially available antibody 6E10 (1:500), which recognizes sAPP-alpha in the conditioned medium (SENETEK). After washing, the membranes were incubated at room temperature with horseradish peroxidase conjugated anti-mouse IgG secondary antibody (Jackson's Laboratories). The signal was then detected using enhanced chemiluminescence followed by exposure of Hyperfilm ECL (Amersham). The band intensities were quantitative by densitometry using a BioRad GS-800 calibrated scanning densitometer and Multianalyst software (BioRad).

As shown in FIG. 7, Bryostatin-1 elicits a powerful response, demonstrating the activation of PKC. It should be noted the activation of PKC is easily detectable 30 minutes after delivery, following a dose of only 0.1 nM of bryostatin-1.

It is also interesting to consider the data in relation to APP metabolism and the effects of its sub-products. Studies have demonstrated that PKC activation increases the amount of ratio of non-amyloidogenic (soluble APP, presumably product of the secretase) vs. amyloidogenic (Aβ1-40 and/or Aβ1-42) secreted fragments (Buxbaum et al., 1990; Gillespie et al., 1992; Selkoe, 1994). Without wishing to be held to this theory, one could speculate that AD cells with low PKC would have an impaired secretion of sAPP and/or have increased proportion of amyloidogenic fragments. Indeed, there is evidence that some AD cell lines exhibit both defective PKC and impaired sAPP secretion (Bergamaschi et al., 1995; Govoni et al., 1996). In addition, β-amyloid has been shown to induce an AD-like K⁺ channel defect in fibroblasts (Etcheberrigaray et al., 1994) and to block K⁺ currents in cultured neurons (Good et al., 1996). Therefore, we suggest a mechanistic link such that an isozyme-specific PKC defect may lead to abnormal APP processing that, among other possible deleterious effects, alters K⁺ channel function. Recent preliminary data also suggest that, perhaps in a vicious cyclical manner, β-amyloid in turn causes reductions of PKC (Favit et al., 1997).

In summary, the data suggest that the strategy to up-regulate PKC function targeting specific isozymes increases sAPP production. These studies and such a fibroblasts model could be expanded and used as tools to monitor the effect of compounds (bryostatin, for example) that alter potential underlying pathological processes. Further, one of ordinary skill in the art would know how to further tests these samples through Ca²⁺ imagining and electrophysiology. Such compounds could then be used as bases for rational design of pharmacological agents for this disorder.

Example 6 Morris Water Maze

The effect of PKC activators on cognition was demonstrated by the Morris Water Maze paradigm. In the present example, rats were injected intraventricularly with bryostatin-1 and trained for 4 days (following standard protocols). Retention was assessed on the 5^(th) day. Learning was measured as the reduction of escape latency from trial to trail, which was significantly lower in the treated animals. Acquisition of memory was measured as time spent in the relevant quadrant (5^(th) day). Memory or retention was significantly enhanced in treated animals, compared to sham injection animals (see, FIGS. 4 through 5( a)-5(c)). The rats treated with bryostatin-1 showed improved cognition compared to control rats within 2 days of treatment. (See, FIG. 4). Bryostatin is capable of being used at concentrations to improve cognition that are 300 to 300,000 times lower than the concentration used to treat tumors. The above example further shows that cognitive ability can be improved in non-diseased subjects as compared to other non-diseased subjects through the administration of bryostatin-1.

Because of the previously conducted safety, toxicology and phase II clinical studies for cancer, one can conclude that the use of PKC activators, particularly bryostatin-1, would be viewed as safe and that phase II studies for AD treatment/cognitive enhancement could be expedited. Furthermore, bryostatin-1's lipophilic nature provides increased blood brain barrier transport. The present invention would allow for intravenous, oral, intraventricullar, and other known methods for administration.

Test of sAPP secretion experiments, PKC activation experiments, and animal behavior experiments have shown that increases in sAPP secretion follow increased PKC activation and result in improved cognition in animal behavior studies. 

What is claimed:
 1. A method for reducing neurodegeneration comprising administering to a subject in need thereof a composition comprising: a) bryostatin-1; b) vitamin E; and c) a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier, wherein vitamin E is administered in a dose between 15 and 2,000 IU per day.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the vitamin E is a-tocopherol.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the subject suffers from a neurodegenerative disease selected from the group consisting of Alzheimer's Disease; multi-infarct dementia; the Lewy-body variant of Alzheimer's Disease with or without association with Parkinson's disease; Creutzfeld-Jakob disease; Korsakoffs disorder; and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
 4. The method of claim 3, wherein the neurodegenerative disease is Alzheimer's Disease.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the bryostatin-1 induces synaptic modification.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the bryostatin-1 increases the relative amount of non-amyloidogenic soluble APP (sAPP).
 7. A method for reducing loss of cognitive ability or enhancing cognitive ability comprising administering to a subject in need thereof the composition comprising: a) bryostatin-1; b) vitamin E; and c) a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier, wherein vitamin E is administered in a dose between 15 and 2,000 IU per day.
 8. The method of claim 7, wherein the vitamin E is a-tocopherol.
 9. The method of claim 7, wherein the subject suffers from a neurodegenerative disease selected from the group consisting of Alzheimer's Disease; multi-infarct dementia; the Lewy-body variant of Alzheimer's Disease with or without association with Parkinson's disease; Creutzfeld-Jakob disease; Korsakoffs disorder; and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
 10. The method of claim 9, wherein the neurodegenerative disease is Alzheimer's Disease.
 11. The method of claim 7, wherein the cognitive ability is selected from the group consisting of learning, memory and attention.
 12. The method of claim 7, wherein the bryostatin-1 induces synaptic modification.
 13. The method of claim 7, wherein the bryostatin-1 increases the relative amount of non-amyloidogenic soluble APP (sAPP). 